sunday saunter

After a long series of raw or rainy days that had me coaxing small fires in the woodstove to take the chill off the house, yesterday was sunny, humid, and hot. Really hot. It may have topped 70F but I didn't check the thermometer. The black flies, which have been toying with us ever since the last snowfall, appeared en masse and in battle formation. I knew before I opened the door, as I could see the goats shaking their ears and making sudden short sprints in the paddocks.

Here we go.
Black flies, mosquitoes, deer flies, horse flies.
The hair is standing straight up on my head just from typing those words.

I'm going to try to start taking Piper for short walks very early in the morning. Piper has never been a morning person. Like LeShodu, who kept the whole herd on a Brunch, Not Breakfast schedule for her lifetime, Piper won't eat first thing in the morning. And even though dawn has always been one of my favorite times of day, after I've been up - not just awake, but up - on average every three hours throughout every night, I am not particularly sparky in the morning myself. So it will take a bit of effort, this experiment in early walks to see if we can avoid some of the biting bugs.

Today was Day One, and I persuaded Piper to come outside with me when the sky was greying but the sun had not yet come over the stone wall and through the woods. There was no one else walking on the road (I have seen more people and dogs on this road in the past few weeks than in the past decade) and the Invisible Dog That Always Barks At Us was silent. Our route was a narrow triangle of slightly more than a mile, and when the sun dazzled through just past the half-mile point, we began to see a few black flies. So...tomorrow I'll try to get my lazy self out a little earlier. Piper is a better sport than I am about getting out of bed and staggering toward the door, but only if I "go first," so I will have to be the driving wheel in this endeavor. Wish me luck.

~~~

p.s. I'm planning to get the Candy Roaster squash seeds in the mail this week.

Six people in three states have already emailed their mailing addresses, and I have LOTS of seed to share, so please feel free to join in! 

~~~~~

happy trails

 On one of our short walks along our road last Autumn,
Piper and I noticed a patch of Epigaea repens: trailing arbutus, or mayflower.
This is what a section of it looked like on 16 September 2019:

(You can left-click to embiggen all these images.)

This patch of arbutus does not have an easy life.

In early April, the plants looked like this:

I didn't know how early it might bloom
so we've walked that way often to check on it.

We had a fairly heavy snowstorm
shortly before these three pictures were taken,
on the 19th of April.
 The first shows the entire patch of arbutus,
on the slope in the right side of the photograph:

Something caught my eye.
Can you see it?

I put the camera on the ground for a closer view.

These delicate buds had been buried in snow one day earlier.

And six days later, yesterday:

This last picture is my favorite:

The little flowers peeping out from beneath tough, tattered leaves,

amongst a criss-cross tangle of pine needles and twigs,

finding a small beam of sunlight.

I hope you are also finding all the sunlight you need.

~~~~~

friday phenology

Viburnum lantanoides: alderleaf viburnum, hobblebush

to be continued

~~~~~

wordless wednesday

~~~~~

free seeds

Years ago, a friend had a wooden bird feeder in the shape of a tray labelled "Free Seeds!" held by a cheerful cat. I thought of it last week when I was moving my bird feeders away from the spot where I've been enjoying them right next to my "working window," and into the small fenced-off Bird Safety Zone. In Winter, the spot by my window provided good protection from hawks amongst the hundreds of twiggy stems of Kerria japonica. But now that plants are just beginning to leaf out and the cats are spending many hours outdoors, the same shrubby quality of the Kerria becomes a liability to the birds, who may not see the cats coming. So, I've got the binocs out again and will be watching the feeders from a bit farther away.

long-distance action shot!

I still have two tiny suction-cup feeders stuck to porch windows, but only the boldest birds use them, and they are difficult to clean and fill, so they may soon come down in favor of window screens. But first I'm going to see if most of the birds will become comfortable using the feeders in the Safety Zone. With the trees not yet leafed out, that area probably feels dangerously exposed and many of the birds seem reluctant to make the transition. Time will tell.

~~~

We've had some interesting weather fluctuations lately.

Epimedium

Podophyllum peltatum - Mayapple

Sanguinaria canadensis - Bloodroot

And this afternoon it's raining. Heavily. Again.

Moxie, the gardening cat, has been helping me take down the yarn bean trellis and salvage the yarn for reuse this year, but we won't be doing more garden work today.

It seems a great many people who don't usually garden are planning to grow vegetables this year, which is great - I'm very happy to think more people are going to have their hands in soil and experience the thrill-ride that is gardening. But this unexpected increase in gardeners also means seed companies have been overwhelmed with orders and many have already sold out of some stock. Luckily, I already have most of my seed, saved from last year. But there are always a few special seeds or plants to order,  and even a month ago I was having trouble finding them. So my 2020 Gardens may be different from what I had planned, but that's fine - and in a way, it could be said every year.

One thing I will certainly plant this year is Candy Roaster squash.

Portrait: on the vine

In recent years I've experimented with planting Candy Roasters in various locations, in raised beds, in hills, amongst corn rows, and on arched stockpanel trellis. I liked the arches, and if I can manage to construct them, will add more this year.

Candy Roaster arch, 2019

"Free Seeds!" I have plenty of seed from my organically-grown 2019 Candy Roasters, and will be glad to send some to anyone who would like to plant them. Whether you are an Old Hand or a Brand New gardener, if you've got room for massive vines and a way to provide water in a dry season, why not give it a go? It's a winter squash, and needs to stay on the vine until Autumn frosts force a decision to bring them in, but then they keep for months and are excellent for baking, roasting (or course), soups, "pumpkin" pies or breads, all sorts of things.

So, if you would like some Candy Roaster seeds, drop me an email with your mailing address and I'll send some along. Don't be shy! I'd love to introduce more people to this squash, which I learned about several years ago from my blog-pal Tipper, over at Blind Pig and the Acorn. Forever grateful, Tipper!

~~~~~